Raising the pedagogic status of discourse intonation teaching

Abstract

At the heart of many cross-cultural misunderstandings lie problems associated with intonation features of learner English. Failure to make use of the appropriate pragmatic discourse features of English intonation may result in serious communication breakdown between native and non-native speakers of even advanced levels of proficiency. This article sets out a case for teaching the pragmatic (discourse-based) features of English intonation to overseas students studying on tertiary-level ELT courses, in order to improve cross-cultural communication at both receptive and productive stages. Drawing on data from advanced level EAP learners, it advocates a systematic approach to the teaching of the pragmatic and discourse functions of English intonation through a consciousness-raising methodology that uses authentic academic oral texts.

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